Hello and welcome to my trip report covering the flights from Bangkok to Bristol via Amsterdam with KLM. I will split the report into two parts: the first will cover the outbound from Bangkok to Bristol and the second will include the return trip with some pictures of the places we visited on a few days stop-over in AMS.

Some background information about the trip, the main purpose of the trip to England was to attend my graduation day at a university in Bristol. But as the date of our planned arrival was around the dates that athletes from around the world would be arriving for the Olympic games in London, so we decided not to take our usual Thai Airways direct flight from Bangkok to London Heathrow to avoid the busy LHR especially the extended immigration waiting time. So we started looking for the flights from Bangkok to Bristol and the options were narrowed down to Air France via CDG or KLM via AMS. In the end, we went with KLM as the price with AF was nearly double the KLM’s fare. This also allowed us to visit Holland for a few days on the way home.

Booking was made on KLM website for the BKK-AMS-BRS-AMS-BKK sectors all operated by KLM. Parents went for Economy Comfort which was around 100 GBP per person per sector more than the Economy Class fare. Me and my brother chose Economy Class. Seat selection for BKK-AMS-BKK was made at the time of the booking whereas seat selection for AMS-BRS-AMS sectors was available at the time of check-in.

We arrived at Bangkok Airport and went directed to KL/AF check-in area, then headed straight to a ‘bag drop’ counter. Check-in was done in just over 5 minutes and we got given our boarding passes to Bristol. After passport check and security screening which took around 10 minutes, we went to Burger King for brunch. But at 11:30am, which was a boarding time for our flight, we discovered that the FID showed a final call and so we rushed to the gate.

Passing this THAI’s A346 operating flight TG916 for LHR

Our plane to Amsterdam

When we arrived at the gate, nearly everyone was already boarded the plane, so we boarded the plane right away.

My seat was in the first section of the Economy Class cabin. Configuration was 3-3-3, and the first four rows are Economy Comfort seats.

Boarding was completed around 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time, and so we had to wait for around 10 to 15 minutes before taxi. The load on this flight was around 90 - 95%, I was very lucky to have the seat next to me empty.

Pushed back and taxied to runway

Took off

Leg room

When the seatbelt sign was switched off, the cabin crew made a standard welcome announcement. Also they informed everyone that Economy Comfort seats were available to purchase for anyone interested. Then headphones were distributed

Then around 20 minutes into the flight, the in-flight entertainment was turned on

Safety card

Then snack (almonds) and drinks were served

Followed by lunch together with white wine, there were two options for lunch, I picked Noodle with fish, but I am sorry I can’t remember the other option.

Starter: some sort of spicy salad

Main course

Dessert: the top chocolate layer on the cake got stuck on the cover

After lunch, I slept for a bit and was woken up around mid way through the flight when the crew started the second meal service.

Transit in Amsterdam: it was a rather long walk to the main terminal. Once we got there, we stopped for a light dinner at a noodle bar. Then headed to our gate where security xray took place and our hand luggage were given a tag for us to deliver them to staff at the aircraft steps. When boarding call started, a long line was formed and we joined this line to get our passport checked. It was nice when the gate agent took my passport and boarding pass and replied ‘Kob Kun Kaa’ (thank you in Thai) when returning my travel documents. Then we were on a bus ride to our airplane.

The flight was around 90% full. After reaching the cruising altitude, biscuit and drinks were served.

Leg room

Cabin; seat configuration is 2-3

The flight was only around 50 minutes, so descending started pretty quick

Landed at Bristol Airport

Parked, the airport looked empty

The cabin

Once inside the terminal, it was a quick walk to passport control and we went to ‘Non EU’ passport channels and went straight to the counter. It took less than 5 minutes for our documents to be checked and our thumbs scanned, and the immigration officer was particularly nice and friendly. When we got to the baggage belt, our bags were already on it.

This would conclude the first part of my trip. We had a really good first long haul Economy flight with KLM. We were very happy with the comfort of the seats and the cabin service. My parents were also happy with the quality of KLM's catering and thought that the food on board KLM tasted better than on our usual Thai Airways. Both flights were on time and transit in Amsterdam was smooth.

I hope you enjoyed this report. The next part will cover the return flight from Bristol to Amsterdam on Fokker 70 and from Amsterdam to Bangkok on Boeing 777-300ER. Thanks for reading, and as ever, all comments/questions are very appreciated.

Quoting win1290 (Thread starter):so we decided not to take our usual Thai Airways direct flight from Bangkok to London Heathrow to avoid the busy LHR especially the extended immigration waiting time.

I'm still quite surprised that you chose to sacrifice all your *A perks and the earned miles just for shorter immigration lines, but if that really was the case then I'm guessing the chaos must've been really bad?

Quoting win1290 (Thread starter): Also they informed everyone that Economy Comfort seats were available to purchase for anyone interested.

That's quite desperate in my opinion to have them do up-selling even in-flight. Did anyone upgrade?

Quoting win1290 (Thread starter):After lunch, I slept for a bit and was woken up around mid way through the flight when the crew started the second meal service.

Food looks really nice, tasty and generous. Good to see them offer two full hot meals on the flight, as opposed to earlier when they only served those styrofoam snack packs.

That is nice. I thought by now all KL 777s were 3-4-3, so this is a good surprise.

It seems KL offered a quite good service. What did you think of the food service on the BKK-AMS flight?

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 2):That's quite desperate in my opinion to have them do up-selling even in-flight. Did anyone upgrade?

Well, I think it is nice to find after boarding that you can still buy an Economy Comfort seat. If you are tired or the seat pitch is worse than expected, it is definitely nice to have the option. And for the right price, I bet many people would do it.

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 2):I'm still quite surprised that you chose to sacrifice all your *A perks and the earned miles just for shorter immigration lines, but if that really was the case then I'm guessing the chaos must've been really bad?

Its always fun and interesting trying out new airlines . I haven't personally had to wait for a long time or know anyone who did, at LHR in weeks prior to the Olympic games. May be the chaos was not as bad as was predicted.

Also as I qualified for *A Gold with my TG account in 2010 and 2011, so my status will last until 2014 and however much I travel this year (2012) the miles will not count towards qualifying miles (as one can't qualify for the third consecutive year). Thus I don't really have an incentive to work hard on getting the miles for my status renewal this year. Having said this, my next trips to Europe in September and October will be with *A airlines.

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 2):That's quite desperate in my opinion to have them do up-selling even in-flight. Did anyone upgrade?

I did see a few people trying to change seat to the Economy Comfort, but the crew noticed this and asked them to return to their original seats. But I didn't see anyone paying for it, and my parents had a free seat between them.

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 2):Food looks really nice, tasty and generous. Good to see them offer two full hot meals on the flight, as opposed to earlier when they only served those styrofoam snack packs.

I agree, it was great, and an ice cream before landing was nice too.

Quoting 767747 (Reply 3):
Nice looking report! It looks like KLM did a nice job with their service on the long-haul flight from BKK. I'm always impressed by their Economy Class meals; they always look tasty and very plentiful!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Matthew! The overall experience was great. Catering exceeded our expectations, both the quality and quantity

Great report! Thanks a lot for taking the time to write it and for sharing your pics!

Hi EddieDude! No problems, I am glad you liked it.

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 4):That is nice. I thought by now all KL 777s were 3-4-3, so this is a good surprise.

It seems KL offered a quite good service. What did you think of the food service on the BKK-AMS flight?

I quite liked the meal. The food service was one of the best I have seen in Y. Crew were giving out meals at a good speed, and then walked a few times along the aisles to individually collect trays from the ones who finished the food.

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 4):Well, I think it is nice to find after boarding that you can still buy an Economy Comfort seat. If you are tired or the seat pitch is worse than expected, it is definitely nice to have the option. And for the right price, I bet many people would do it.

I agree.

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 4):That is nice. I thought by now all KL 777s were 3-4-3, so this is a good surprise.

As of now, only the 777-300s are 3-4-3, whereas the 777-200s remain 3-3-3. All 777s on Air France are 3-4-3 though.

Quoting visualapproach (Reply 6):Thanks for sharing, a good read there. Hope you've enjoyed your time in the BRS area.

Thank you Visualapproach! Glad you liked it. Of course, I had a nice time in Bristol in the last three years as an undergrad student .

Quoting Quokkas (Reply 7):
Hi Win,
Great trip report and a good idea to avoid the crush at LHR if you can. KLM appear to have a decent product and from your photos the cabin seems well-maintained. Meals look OK too.

Hi Roy, Thank you for the nice comments. We had a really good first long haul flight with KLM, particularly impressed with the catering, but other aspects like seat comforts and cabin cleanliness was also great.

Quoting Quokkas (Reply 7):I note that like all good A.netters you selected the map and flight info page. Did you check out the rest of the options? How extensive is the available choice of music and movies?

I am sorry, I didn't pay much attention to the inflight entertainment system. But I am pretty sure there were over 50 films and many more tv shows and documentaries. I watched an episode of Top Gear
As for the music albums, the options were quite extensive. I think there were more than 100 music albums.

Quoting jwhite9185 (Reply 8):
Nice work there Win. As you know i was also on PH-KZI at the weekend, although my flight was more eventful than yours due to the rain!

What did you think of Schiphol? Did you get to visit Amsterdam at all?

Thanks James! I am looking forward to reading your report on it
Transiting in AMS was absolutely smooth with clear signage. I think Schiphol is a great airport but at times, it could get really busy. Yes, we had a two day stop-over in Amsterdam, and I will put some photos during the visit in the next part.

As you know I was looking forward to this report, of my home airline, the minute you told me you would be flying them.
Anyway great report with some nice pictures, I'm glad you liked KLM, the food looks pretty good for "economy" food.

Waddee kub Nong Win!
What a fine report (as usual), I absolutely enjoy reading the content and seeing the photos.
I also like this day flight to Europe as I natually couldn't sleep on planes.
It seems like more and more European carriers are moving their departure schedule from BKK to mid day and arrive evening in Europe. Given a good opportunity for those who need a full real sleep before starting trip/work the next day.

Agree with idea of sneaking *A time to time when we have reached the requirment for *A gold criteria.
Then you are able to try out many different airlines/connections and gain more direct experience of different cabin service.
Also when travel with friends/family, I don't really care about Lounge and extra bag aka *A gold perks.
My mom refused to enter the *A gold lounges a few time when she traveled with me as she wanted to look around the duty free area, and we don't spare too much time at the airport anyway.
I just flew with Qatar and Emirates to Europe back in Mar/May to try out their Asia-Europe service, and it was super sale prices too! Sweet....

KLM uses THAI catering in BKK, as many have agreed that the food look good but I would say these are cheaper stuff.
Wall ice cream is no premium and its retail price comes up under 15 baht.
And I believe the second meal service of Pasta contains no meat. It's more like food for all (incl VGML etc) to keep the cost low. THAI charges the smaller meatfree food item at lower price (compare to the meal items) for its customer airlines.
On the other hand, they are way better than food on US and many European carriers, filling, edible and include in the ticket price!

Many thanks for your beautiful pics and all the details given in your trip report.
A great work with passion.
Cheers,
P'net-hkt.

Quoting jetMarc (Reply 15):Those are the oddest looking cabin dividers I have ever seen! Are they just as they appear, pseudo bulkhead screens partially extending from beneath the overhead bins?

Those dividers are a recent addition between regular Economy and "Economy Comfort", which is the same seats/service but a few extra inches of legroom. Prior to the "dividers", people would move up to empty seats which would irk the other passengers that actually paid for the extra legroom. The idea here is that some sort of barrier will encourage fewer people to move.

Great trip report on KLM, I've flewn them many times accross the pond the last few years and never was dissapointed.
Your BKK-AMS flight looks great, good service and good crew!
Nice that you got the F70 as well

Thanks again, you should come to visit it yourself, though probably not at night time, cause it impossible to see anything outside the terminal.

Hi again Brendan, sorry I didn't mean to state the obvious on the comment, I meant that the BKK airport has a poor window designs that makes spotting airplanes at night impossible.

Quoting visualapproach (Reply 14):Quoting win1290 (Reply 9):
Of course, I had a nice time in Bristol in the last three years as an undergrad student

Nice one.. I live and work in the area, and notice you've used the company I work for a few times. So we might have even run into each other without realising.

Haha, cool! What company do you work for?

Quoting rwsea (Reply 17):Quoting jetMarc (Reply 15):
Those are the oddest looking cabin dividers I have ever seen! Are they just as they appear, pseudo bulkhead screens partially extending from beneath the overhead bins?

Those dividers are a recent addition between regular Economy and "Economy Comfort", which is the same seats/service but a few extra inches of legroom. Prior to the "dividers", people would move up to empty seats which would irk the other passengers that actually paid for the extra legroom. The idea here is that some sort of barrier will encourage fewer people to move.

Waddee Kub P'Net
Thank you for the nice words, I am really glad you enjoyed it.
Yep, I think its very interesting to try out new airlines when I have the chance. I am yet to try out middle eastern carriers from BKK to Europe, and I would really want to one day. But as for the price from BKK to Europe, I personally think that TG is losing its pricing competitiveness especially to some Middle Eastern airlines. We actually managed to get on this trip on KLM from BKK to England via AMS for a price that is cheaper than on our usual TG direct flight to LHR.
Interesting information on the catering front . I agree with you that the ice cream on this flight was 'no premium' but still, I like all ice cream .
Thanks again kub for the nice and encouraging comment

Great trip report on KLM, I've flewn them many times accross the pond the last few years and never was dissapointed.
Your BKK-AMS flight looks great, good service and good crew!
Nice that you got the F70 as well

Quoting roberts87 (Reply 19):
Nice report, thanks for sharing!
Looks like KL delivered another good long haul flight.
I flew the BKK-AMS route myself when it was still a red-eye, so nice to read now how it is as a daytime flight.

Thanks roberts87,
I had a nice long haul flight with KLM. I didn't know that KLM used to have a red-eye on this route, but it good to have a daytime flight.